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Horse by Natalie Spring

Posted on May 8, 2013

The young girl’s fascination with horses rather contradicts the “sugar and spice and everything nice” narrative. Horses are so powerful and dangerous that we measure our most masculine automobiles by their strength. Horses have been crucial allies in the development of culture, and tragically, in the destruction of peoples. Natalie Spring’s stitched horse reflects the human tendency to look at a wild thing and think, “I will tame him.”

Spring is obsessed with horses. She draws them, paints them, twists them out of wires. To describe her work, I will borrow a line from Michel Gondry’s dreamy film The Science of Sleep: “They are made from wood and felt, with apparent stitches. Their delicate and finished appearance is friendly. And they are quiet.”

Spring herself is focused, studious, and deeply invested in her friendships. While her wire horse sculptures focus on the dynamic aspect of the animal, the plush sculpture is more about companionship. It harkens back to a day when children’s toys were beautiful instead of cute, a piece of art that children were expected to care for and mend.

The horse is made from warm grey felt. Its graceful, slender legs are poised in a gallop. Fragile reigns of blue and white yarn are draped across its black mane. Like Gondry’s grey felt horse Golden the Pony Boy (on whom the protagonists sit as the three float away on a boat at the end of the movie), Spring’s sculpture represents a childlike desire for warmth and friendship while acknowledging the power inherent in the creative act.

Written by Creativity Explored volunteer Jayinee Basu. Visit this site often for more of Jayinee's submissions, or check out her style blog Visual Input or her poetry blog Thickness and Touch.﻿﻿﻿